Attention Getters

Show Cars Attired In Colors That Catch The Eye

Don't be surprised if a lot of cars displayed at the Chicago Auto Show are bright yellow, candy apple red, pearlescent silver and bright copper.

That's intentional. Those colors have been chosen to catch the eye of showgoers and draw them to the various manufacturer's exhibits.

"Car manufacturers do a heck of a lot of research on what is going to draw people to their displays," says Jerry Cizek, general manager of the 1999 Chicago Auto Show. "And a lot of that centers around colors. Bright colors always attract attention--there's no question about that."

There is much to the science of the car colors used as exhibits, say those connected to the auto show.

"Obviously one of the most important things as it relates to color is lighting," says Don Cecconi, the national merchandising manager for Toyota Motors. "We put significant resources into lighting the vehicles on display. So as a person walks into the hall and sees the Toyota exhibit, we hope they'll see an exhibit that catches their attention."

Lighting is important because car finishes are meant for the outdoors, not convention halls.

"Outside, a dark metallic green color will look beautiful," says Cecconi. "Indoors, it doesn't have the brilliance it has in the sun. So we'll use colors that are a little brighter; we'll use more whites and reds and lighter tone colors that look as well indoors as they do outdoors."

"The rule is you don't put black cars on black carpet because you're going to lose them (in the light)," says Cizek. "If a manufacturer has a dark color on a turntable, it has to be a very brilliant dark--highly polished and highly lustered with a lot of intense light on it to make that car and color dance."

Not only do the lights need to be optimal but so does the car's finish.

"There's a lot of painstaking efforts to make sure that the finish of that car is absolutely perfect," says Cizek. "Because those high-intensity lights tend to magnify any imperfection or swirl mark or hand print on the car."

While these show colors attract attention, they're not what people look for in showrooms. Consumers tend to gravitate to the more neutral or conservative colors such as dark blues, dark greens and whites, say the experts.

"The colors you see--especially on the concept cars--are not the colors that people will pick," says Cecconi. "But they are the colors that will draw them to the display. And that's why we use them."